Healing
by Small Fox
Summary: After the battle on the bridge Naruto discovers that Inari still needs help getting over a little problem. Yaoi-ish


Authors note: this story is not meant to be taking overly seriously. It does however attack something that annoys me about Yaoi stories. Now I like the genre overall and my next story is a pure Yaoi romance so if you like my first story and not this one you might like the third.

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One week ago, the members of team seven had faced off against two Missing-nin on a half completed bridge in the Land of Wave. They had fought and one of them had almost died. They had witnessed first-hand that oppressed people could come together and face down their tyrant. Indeed, they had seen many things betrayal, revenge and even redemption.

That had been one week ago. Now, the three members of team seven sat around the dining room table, each absorbed in their own activity. Sakura was reading a romance novel she had borrowed from Tsunami. Sasuke was sharpening a weapon and Naruto was tearing a napkin into long strips. The three froze simultaneously when they heard water rushing through the pipes. For a moment, all three pointedly did not look at the others.

Naruto was the first to break this stalemate by lowering the chair he had been rocking back in. When all four legs were on the floor, Sasuke and Sakura put down their weapon and book respectively. Naruto darted for the stairs first quickly followed by his two teammates. The blonde was pushed aside by Sakura and both of them passed him by, but he was never one to give up. Climbing to his feet, the Genin used his newly discovered ability to manipulate chakra to run along the wall, but unfortunately, running along a wall in a confined space was not the best idea he had ever had.

As he overtook his two teammates, he struck his head against the wall of the small hallway. This broke his concentration and caused him to fall, tripping up both of his teammates. For a second, they were in a twisted heap of arms and legs. Naruto had just untangled himself and was on one knee when he was pushed down from behind and was used as a stepping stool for Sasuke. Losing to him, even in this little race, was simply not acceptable to the blonde and he reached out and snatched Sasuke's foot, tripping him up.

The force of Sasuke's jump pulled him both foreword and to the ground which they both hit simultaneously. Sakura darted past the both of them, grinning back at them. She paused in front of the bathroom door and a second later it opened. Inari walked out and she cheerfully greeted him, tousling his hair and stepping into the bathroom.

Inari, now in his pajamas, paused when he saw the two Genin sprawled on the floor. Hesitating for a second he started towards Naruto. By now, the blonde was sitting against the wall defeated. The younger boy stared down at him. "Did something happen?"

The ninja paused for a second. Kakashi sensei had explained to them that Inari's family simply didn't have the Ryo to repair the recirculation unit in the bathtub. They also couldn't tax the hot water heater. He smiled, kind of embarrassed, because although they were ninjas, they did like a hot bath at the end of the day. "Well by the time your grandfather, your mother and you are done with the bathtub it's really only warm enough for one more person, then it gets kind of cold."

"Oh, sorry." the boy's expression suddenly lit up and he said cheerfully, "Tomorrow why don't you come in with me?"

Naruto blinked and then smiled. He hadn't bathed with another person since he moved out of the orphanage. "That would be nice."

The younger boy smiled, but if Naruto had been more observant he would've seen that there was a little nervousness behind the younger's smile.

The next day went by pretty much like the previous week had for Naruto. They were still guarding Tazuna from bandits, but by this point it seemed unlikely that any of Gato's men would be returning. The bridge was now a hub of activity as dozens of men had come to work on it and visible progress could be seen on it daily. The downside to all the new activity was it covered the ninja in dust.

Kakashi had broken them down into two teams that did five hour shifts each. This would've been fine with the blonde if he had been stuck with Sakura, but that only happened every third day. Today he had been stuck with Sasuke and both had spent their shift pointedly, not so much as looking at the other. After the workday ended, they escorted their client home with the biggest trouble being civilians stopping to thank Tazuna.

Arriving at Inari's home dinner was almost ready so they washed their hands and sat down. Conversation around the table was a little dull and Inari in particular seemed quiet. Naruto did notice, but didn't think much of it. Tazuna hit the bathroom first, followed by Tsunami. When she was done, she came into the kitchen where Naruto and Inari were playing a card game.

"Time to get clean little man." Inari's mother said patting him on the head.

"Mom, don't treat me like a kid." he said pushing her hand away as Naruto tried to hide his smile.

"Alright alright, I'm sorry, but you do need to wash up. Your pajamas are already up there."

"Okay, let's go Naruto," he looked up towards his mother and added as if it was just occurring to him, "We're going to bathe together. Is that okay?"

Tsunami smiled at Naruto, "Of course he can, if he's okay with it. I remember when you and I used to take baths together, but you said you were getting too big for that."

"Mom." Inari drew out the word the way only an embarrassed kid could.

"Alright go you two, but remember not to take too long."

Naruto had watched the exchange between mother and son somewhat confused. He had never really seen playful interplay between parent and child before, it seemed strange. When his friend sprinted up the stairs, he followed having already grabbed his own pajamas earlier.

The bathroom was mostly traditional. When they first opened the door there was a small series of shelves that had baskets for their clothing. They both stripped quickly and it was only when they stepped into the actual bathing area that Naruto paused. At the orphanage there had always been multiple showerheads, but here there was only one and he wasn't sure if he should let Inari go first or not. The other boy solved the problem for him by saying, "You can go first and then we can soak together."

Naruto nodded and took a seat on the little stool, accepting the detachable shower head from Inari. It was only as he took it that he noticed something. Like Naruto, the other boy was making no effort to cover himself. This was normal given the situation, but what wasn't normal was how small Inari's equipment was. The blonde knew that he had been growing down there, but there was no way he had ever been that small.

He shook himself knowing it was rude to stare and soaked himself with the shower head. Still, Naruto couldn't help but look from the corner of his eye. In his mind he tried to think that it had been a while since he had seen someone Inari's age naked, but he still thought it looked small. His testicles hung down a little and the rest, well, it looked like a button.

"It's all yours." Naruto said once he was soaked from head to toe. He relinquished the stool and stood to start scrubbing his body with a bar of soap. He was standing behind the other boy when the younger of the two asked, "Can you wash my back?"

"Sure." Naruto said kneeling behind Inari. With one hand he rubbed the bar of soap across his shoulders until there was a thick lather. He used his other hand to start spreading that around. The boy from the Wave's skin was unexpectedly soft under his callous fingers. It was probably caused by the small layer of baby fat he still sported.

The blonde scrubbed his friends back thoroughly, but almost absentmindedly. Naruto had done this before when he lived at the orphanage. Back then they had been separated into groups of boys and girls and used the washroom in turn. They used to form two rows on either side of the walls and scrubbed the back of the person in front of them. It had been one of the few group activities he had always been allowed to participate in.

Reaching the base of his back he said, "Done."

"You want me to do yours?" Inari asked and this time, Naruto did notice that the boy's voice was sort of trembling as if he was nervous.

"Okay." Naruto answered wearily.

Before the blonde knew what was happening, Inari had stepped behind him and with Naruto still kneeling on the floor, threw himself onto Naruto's back wrapping his arms around his neck. At first he was stunned, but then the smaller boy started to move up and down his back and again he felt his soft smooth skin. Apparently, his friend's front had been slick with soap which added to the strange and not wholly unpleasant sensation. The Genin felt the others soft stomach and another smaller, softer spot and his eyes widened as he realized what that was. However, that surprise was nothing as he realized that his body was having a reaction.

Naruto's penis had become stiff. Reaching up, he broke Inari's grip and half pulling half sliding the boy off he pinned him to the floor face first. Straddling the other boy with a knee on either side, he only put a small portion of his weight onto the other boy not wanting to hurt him. Pausing for a second, he stared down at his erection.

The other boy thankfully kept his face turned away from Naruto's embarrassing situation, and for a second, the blonde panicked. If his friend saw him like this it would be really embarrassing. Biting his lip nervously, he came up with a plan or at least something close to one. Reaching over, being very careful to not let his little hard on touch the other, he grabbed the shower head. Turning it on himself, he washed off all the soap.

When the water started to run clean off his body and down the drain, Naruto shut the shower head off and darted for the tub trying to conceal his little problem. Slipping into the deep tub he sighed with relief as the water came to his chin. It was hot and there were even still some bubbles slowly rising to the surface along the sides of the tub.

When he looked back over at Inari, he had sat up and was staring over at him. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence before the other boy moved to wash himself off. Then he stood and moved rather solemnly to the tub edge and rested his chin on the edge.

"Don't you like me?"

"Yeah, I like you." At the very recesses of Naruto's mind he knew something was going on here, but what it was he couldn't fathom.

"Then why didn't you," he trailed off and looked down, "You know?"

"Know what?" Naruto questioned starting to feel a little concerned.

"You know," the younger boy almost demanded, "I did everything right."

The blonde frowned at the younger boy becoming upset that he was upset. "I don't know what you're talking about?"

The boy's face scrunched into a twisted expression of frustration. "I made your thing hard, but you didn't put it in my butt."

"What?" Naruto's shout echoed around the room and he instinctively lowered his voice, "What, how, why would you think that?" He stuttered out.

Inari lowered his head and said quietly, "Because, I'm small and it's what I'm supposed to do."

The older boy looked at the younger, hearing the words but not really registering them. When he could finally think again, he spoke his first thought, "Of course you're small. You're eight years old."

The other shook his head, "No, not like that." He pointed down, "They said they never seen one so small on someone my age."

Naruto blushed as he realized what Inari was referring to, but then realized something. "Wait, who are they?"

The smaller of the two looked him in the eye and then looked away as he began his story. It started before Gato had really started to sink his clutches into the country. There was a local festival and in one of the events there was amateur sumo wrestling for all ages. Kaiza had signed up to participate and had encouraged Inari to do the same in his weight division.

On the day of the competition they had both arrived at a shrine that was being used for changing and had gone into separate rooms to change. Inari, like most of the other kids, needed help putting on the mawashi, which was a heavy cotton cloth material. They were not allowed to wear anything under it so he had been virtually naked. An older teen had helped him put it on, but when he saw his lack of endowment he called over an older friend to take a look.

Inari didn't know what to do so he just stood there as the two looked down at him. Then one of them said, "That it was the smallest thing they've ever seen." Then they both laughed and helped him finish getting dressed. They were both participating in the competition and as they waited for their turn they sat with him. Inari said he thought they were nice, but they kept talking about his little problem.

There was a short intermission before Inari's age group was to start and the two older boys took him aside and showed him a dirty manga which he apparently had done his best to copy just a few minutes ago. When they came back to where the matches were being held Kaiza was there and he had instinctively gone to him. After that, he hadn't seen the two boys again.

By the time he finished his story, Naruto was grinding his teeth together in anger. When Inari wiped away a single tear, though, he snapped out of his anger and pulled the boy into the tub for a hug. It was awkward at first, but then the younger of the two hugged back. After a minute, they broke the hug and Naruto let Inari sit on his knee.

When it came to sex, and things like that, Naruto was not an expert, but what those two older boys had told Inari was pure crap. "Listen, Inari, what those two boys told you is not true. You're not destined to be anything just because of something like that."

"Are you sure? You're big so maybe you don't know." The boy said looking up at him.

Naruto blushed at that, but continued. "I know it's true because people are destined to be anything and anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool." He smiled and added, "Let me tell you something."They both leaned towards the other as if he was about to impart a great secret. "At the Academy, I was the worst in my class, but now I can kick any of my former classmates butt."

Inari smiled at that and Naruto added, "It's really not a big deal. You'll grow, I did and even if you don't I'm sure girls will like you, remember, you're a hero."

Inari smiled at that and said with a laugh, "Yeah, you're right."

Many strange and unpredictable things had happened to team seven on their mission to Wave, but the conversation Naruto had with Inari the first night they took a bath together was the strangest. When it came time to leave Naruto was surprised at how attached he had become to the other boy. At the back of his mind he knew he had helped him to get over the death of his surrogate father and he hoped he helped him with the misinformation he had been given. It wouldn't be until years later when he received a wedding invitation that he realized that his mission to the Land of Wave had been a complete success.


End file.
